It is known to provide automotive interiors with various assemblies to improve the comfort and convenience, as well as the safety, for vehicle occupants. Examples of some of these interior assemblies include the instrument panels, armrests, door trim panels, consoles, and sunvisors. In some of these assemblies, various compartments or attachments are incorporated therein that allow the vehicle occupant, for example, to conveniently store items or to provide additional lighting.
With certain attachments, such as those for sunvisors, it is desirable to include a cover that may overlie, for example, a vanity mirror and/or light when these items are not in use such as when the sunvisor is in a stowed or raised position. The cover for these attachments is typically attached to a body, such as by a hinge mechanism, so that the cover can be pivotally opened and closed as desired by the vehicle occupant to reveal or cover the mirror and/or light. Unfortunately, current sunvisor attachments have some drawbacks.
The primary drawback is in the manufacturing and assembly of the parts for these sunvisor attachments. The current process for making a sunvisor attachment typically includes forming the body having an opening in a first mold. The opening being adapted to receive at least a mirror and/or light. The attachment cover then is individually formed in a second and separate mold. A further separate connecting member, usually a pair of metal or plastic cylindrical hinge pins, then is used to couple the cover to the body. Moreover, current sunvisor attachments typically include a pair of damping mechanisms to provide some resistance to opening and closing the cover. The as-formed sunvisor attachment may then be inserted into the sunvisor for use as a sunvisor assembly in a vehicle.
Thus, under current manufacturing processes, sunvisor attachments comprise several different parts each having different part numbers that must all be appropriately supplied, tracked, shipped, inventoried and eventually assembled to make the complete product. These multiple part assemblies in turn lead to significant administrative and labor costs, which increase the overall costs of production.
There is thus a need for an improved sunvisor attachment and a method for making the same that reduces the number of parts and the labor required for assembly thereof thereby reducing overall manufacturing costs.